Clock-watch cops clobber the clubs...

POLICE have been criticised for forcing Town's packed nightclubs to close their bars 'early' over the Easter weekend in a bizarre dispute over the clocks going forward.

The force has been accused of costing the venues thousands of pounds in what has been labelled a 'slapdash' change to a long-standing agreement to ignore any seasonal time changes.

The three nightclubs – Fusion, Les Folies d'Amour and Barbados Beach Club – claim that officers gave them only around 10 minutes' notice to close bars an hour before they had planned to with hundreds of revellers inside and others queuing.

Officers arrived at the St Peter Port venues at around 12.50am to warn them to stop serving alcohol when the clocks went forward at 1am, making it 2am British Summer Time. The clubs are licensed to serve alcohol until 2am.

But Fusion proprietor Adam Burroughs, pictured, hit out at police for failing to get in touch earlier, claiming it could have left officers overwhelmed with around 1,000 potentially angry revellers kicked out onto the street together.